


Hopes and Dreams

by ThighBoneLulz (reitziluz)



Series: CAT (too, is an acronym) [2]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: (of natural cause), Get Together, Growing Up, Hardships, Mental Health Issues, Mind Meld, Minor Character Death, Multi, Other, POV Multiple, Politics (minor), Post-Undertale Soulless Pacifist Route, Slice of Life, Spiders, friendships, partially in comic form, the fine line between experimental and gimmicky, the happiest soulless pacifist ever
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-27
Updated: 2016-11-27
Packaged: 2018-08-24 16:10:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 11,755
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8378815
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reitziluz/pseuds/ThighBoneLulz
Summary: The sky is frightening for those who were born and raised under a mountain.Slowly, a new home is built. A Last Home.Or, "monsters and humans more or less get along because I need domestic shenanigans and mutual culture shocks."





	1. If I Were to Submerge This Town

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome back.  
> Let's start with a look to the past.
> 
> The chapter count is tentative: there are 24 proper chapters, but there will also be occasional small (100~200 words) fragments posted between chapters. Why? Because they didn't fit in larger chapters.
> 
> (Feel free to read the first part in the series before this. It is not strictly necessary, but does set the scene.)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "As you gaze out of the window and say: 'I want to go far away,'  
> nothing reflected in your empty eyes.   
> I won’t wish for too much and hope you’d look at me, but…"

_ _

_ _

_ _

_ _

_ _

_ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next up is... "Reunited."


	2. Reunited

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> * That kid over there told me that it's weird that I have a pet bunny.  
> * First, there'd be nothing weird about it.  
> * It's cute!  
> * Second...  
> * What?  
> * It's normal to walk your younger brother on a leash, right?

Week after the Barrier broke most of the monsters were outside.

They were eager and excited, but surprisingly organized. The initial grumbling about being assigned turns and having to wait died down after the enormity of it all sunk in. Still, some families had packed everything they owned immediately and camped in New Home. Others had taken their time – more like threw together some essentials at the last minute – but eryone ended up walking through the castle gates in silent awe. This was the case with the Snowdin bunnies, too.

“Cinnamon, don’t pull.”

The little bunny babbled and pointed every little thing on the mountain path, but slowed his hops until his sister caught up with him. The Innkeepers were walking as a tight cluster, all of their noses twitching. Ragi understood them completely. So many strange smells, so many potential threats. Luckily she had Cinnamon on his leash, otherwise she would have had to constantly worry about him falling off a cliff or to eating some strange berries. They wouldn’t just convert to energy! Think what kind of a tummy ache that could mean! Now Cinnamon was safe and never farther away from her than she liked.

(Honestly, that rude kid had no reason to look at her like that!)

“Hey, Ragi, look who’s up ahead!” Tessa called to her and pointed somewhere between the strange trees.

“Sorry, who do you mean?”

“Isn’t that – hey, sis, just a sec and I’ll be back - “ Tessa wrangled her hand free from her sister’s grip and hopped over to Ragi’s side. She was probably one of the only monsters who didn’t have to squint in the bright glare of the Surface. It really had been smart of her to wear her hat. Practical. Ragi liked practical things (and there was never anything strange in being practical! Look, she pulled her brother yet again away from loose rocks and danger, just like that. Honestly, why did that kid keep staring at her? Their eyes looked all weird.)

“Ragi, are ya listening to me? Look, sweetie, isn’t one of your cousins in the Guard?”

“Oh! 01!” She exclaimed when she finally saw a glimpse of the familiar pair of fluffy ears. 01 (nothing strange about being practcal with names too, they all had so, so many siblings) seemed to notice them at the same time and waved his hand.

“Yo, coz! Like, welcome to the Surface! And yo, Cinnamon, bro, how’re you?”

Cinnamon shrieked wordlessly. He gestured with his hands and jumped up and down. 01 laughed and patted his head, until the little bunny just vibrated in place.

“Yeah, bro, I get you. It’s like, pretty great here. Totally different from the Underground. Like, just look at those trees, bro!”

Oh, she had noticed the trees. Strangely fluffy and impossibly tall and filled with tiny creatures that were neither humans nor monsters. Animals. It felt so strange to see them, when you couldn’t _feel_ them. The Human _felt_ like something, unlike most of these… things. Somehow they were so complex, but at the same time, so much more less than even the tiniest moldsmal.

“Lots of things to get used to,” she answered with a nod.

Cinnamon babbled something incomprehensible. Innkeepers’ little one joined him. Pretty much all of the bunnies were gathered around 01 now. They were blocking the road, and the guard seemed to notice this.

“Hey, like, please keep on moving. Queen Toriel has, like, snacks and info for new arrivals. Just go that way, okay?” 01 pointed along the road towards the clearing that had been filled with colorful tents. Ragi sighed and pulled Cinnamon close. Only a little more, and they could take a break inside one of those tents. Shade and something cold to drink, and she could try getting used to all this light and heat.

 

The mass of bunnies around her didn’t move anywhere.

 

“Hey, what’s the hold up, folks? Let’s get going!” Tessa hollered from the back of the pack. Annoyed, Ragi realized they had gotten separated, and she was now pretty close to the front – only, five bunnies blocked her way, but she was not going to try walking on that spongy green stuff outside the path.

“What under _earth_ is -”

The knot of bunnies suddenly jumped at the sound of a loud yell.

“ _There’s NOTHING_!”

It was that rude kid – they were staring up to the sky, eyes wild and nose twitching. Both of their hands were reaching far above their head, paws trying to grab onto something, anything, magic reaching even farther up but only meeting up with emptiness.

Ragi recognized the gesture immediately. Everyone there did, she could feel the wave of sympathy in the magic around her.

“Nothing! Just… just nothing...” Rabbit kid slowly lowered their hands and their magic, and ever slower, curled into a crouch. They were shaking and digging their fingers into the loose sand of the path, trying to find a root or a rock or something to hold on to. Ragi was close enough to hear the rapid wheezes of hyperventilation. _Oh no_ , they hadn’t been judging her, they had been scared, and she hadn’t noticed – what could she do, what could she…?

“Cousin! Please,” she turned to 01, but didn’t know how to finish her request. The guard understood anyway, and after nodding went to loom over the kid. He pressed both of his large paws on their shoulders.

“I’ve got you, bro. Let’s go to the tent.”

“I – _I can’t_. What if I – what if...”

What if someone used blue magic and just flung them up?

What if their feet somehow got unstuck from whatever was holding them to the Surface, and they just… dropped?

The Surface was beautiful, with its bright and vibrant colors and it’s sweet smelling air.

The Surface was also terrifying.

 

Luckily Ragi was a very, very _practical_ sort of girl.

“Cin-Cin, darling, grab my skirt and don’t let go.”

Her little brother obeyed silently. He looked very serious, understanding that his task was very, very important. She took off his harness and adjusted it into it’s largest size possible. She hadn’t wanted to buy anything that would go to waste immediately, as Cinnamon was a growing bunny, and the kid wasn’t all that big, so. _Nothing_ weird about it!

Nothing weird about presenting the harness to the kid.

“If you’d like,” she started, and paused.

“I will hold on very tight.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next up is... "The Fallen King."


	3. The Fallen King

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I just wanted everyone to have hope…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CW in end notes.

Surrounded by tents and joyous faces, Asgore felt uneasy.

It had started when he had seen yet another child in front of him, ages and a week ago. His soul had turned and twisted and stayed in a knot even though the fight never came to be. It had wavered, when the bright light had swallowed him. When they had been standing on the ledge watching the sun set for the first time after countless years, Asgore’s soul had felt much too small. Talking to his people and denying them the sky, even if it was for their own good, even if it was only for a small while compared to the millenia of imprisonment, had made it ache.

It wouldn’t settle for a long time.

 

“Are you sure?” Gerson frowned over maps and plans spread on the quilt.

“Yes. They could take it as an attack”, Asgore said and sipped his tea. The sky was clear and painfully blue. The perfect weather for a picnic. Sans’ brother’s laughter boomed two quilts over, quickly followed by Undyne’s cackling.

“Aye, but they might anyway. Is it safe for the pipsqueak?”

“It’s never safe.” Asgore sighed. He’d known for a long time that the humans had finally conquered the skies. His child had talked about it, and they had monsters like Tsunderplane as living proof. Not even the Barrier managed to completely sever their co-evolution with humans.

That is, until humans started caring more about their trash.

“They have most likely already spotted us, and are waiting to see our hand.”

Behind the blue satellites circled around the Earth. And who knew what might have flown over them so far up magic couldn’t reach it and cloaked from eyesight? Frisk didn’t know much, young as they were, but they had told him enough to paint a picture of the leaps humans had taken since the last time he had listened a human child tell him about their world over a cup of tea.

“I still don’t like it”, Gerson grumbled.

“Me neither, my friend. Me neither.”

 

Toriel gave him an earful when he explained the plan for her. It was more worry than anger, though, and she proceeded to shoulder even more responsibilities. Asgore had learned his lesson. He couldn’t rule his people alone. He had made too many bad choices out of ignorance, fear, and misplaced mercy. It would be foolish pride to try continue like nothing had changed. Toriel had much better judgment when it came to the well-being of everyone and not just the monster right in front of her. She was also better in delegating her duties further: where Asgore would have tried to keep guard on his own, she asked Undyne to patrol, and where he would have lectured children, she had Gerson drill caution to their heads with tales from the past.

He couldn’t fulfill his duty to his people alone, but they were his responsibility, He carried their hopes and dreams on his shoulders. He was their king, and as their king, there were things he must do on his own.

He remembered the war, the power of humans. The things he had done. Maybe, in the end, he didn't have blood of all the children on his hands, but they were bloody nonetheless. War had left them all dusty and beaten and hopeless. Hollow. Some couldn't hold on to life, even though their natural lifespans would have allowed for much longer. All those monsters he once knew, who never saw the sky again – and now he had beside him so many that had never seen it before.

Monsters understood each other, they had empathy that resonated through them all. It had helped them to overcome even a millenia of darkness under a mountain, but it also made them vulnerable.

Humans didn't have that.

Under her bristly comments, Toriel understood. It felt like he had regained some of her respect.

 

On the decided day, Asgore didn’t leave alone. All of Frisk’s friends walked with them to the road. There they parted ways with words of caution and tears caught in eyes. Frisk held his hand and walked silently next to him. They had been a silent shadow by his side ever since they left the Underground. Their frequent tea times had been filled with quiet conversation and planning. They were mature for their age, determined but kind. Asgore hadn’t had the chance to befriend them like others had before, but he had grown fond of this little human. They were exactly the type to keep walking when their legs had tired long ago.

“It’s still a while to go”, Asgore hummed and looked down. “Why don’t you sit on my shoulder for a while?”

Frisk squeezed his paw. They didn’t lift their eyes from the road. Instead, they lifted their hands. Asgore picked them up and helped them climb on his shoulder. They were quieter than usual. Must be their nerves. He too was afraid – just mostly about them.

At first there had been some cars either speeding way or slowing down to gape at them, but soon they were alone on the road. A helicopter appeared to hum high above them. It was likely that only the presence of a child had stopped the humans from attacking them. That and the side road they had chosen, one that avoided buildings and gave them plenty of time to prepare a welcome for them.

Asgore regretted not being able to first contact them with a message of some sort, but Dr. Alphys had already worked without sleep for days against his orders. They just couldn’t connect to human networks quickly enough. Their information was simply too far behind.

Humans had changed, after all.

He had witnessed it in fragments, in trash and children that had become lost under the mountain along with the decades. It was an entirely different beast when it unfurled in full. There were glass fortresses, wide stone roads, a burnt but clean smell in the air. Such an impossibly large city, large enough to swallow all of monsters without a trace – and it had grown right in the shadow of Mt. Ebott. Hadn’t there been just a small hamlet, the last time he had been under the sky? And a quiet town of no importance, when his child had left it? They had truly come far, these humans – so frighteningly far from the days of war.

But humans were also the same.

Their wide roads were empty, the way to the city barricaded. He could count dozens and dozens of soldiers, and more were in hiding.

Asgore stopped at a distance. It would have been useless to try and stay out of the reach of human weapons, but there was power in space and distance. Slowly, measuredly, he lifted his arm – and with it, his trident. Just as slowly he let it fall to the ground. He let his magic keep hold of the shape. It was only a minor drain, and anything else would only make the humans nervous.

"I come in peace!”

Frisk squeezed his horn tightly. There was a skittering movement behind the shields and cars blocking their way.

"I am Asgore Dreemurr, King of the Underground, First among Monsterkind. The Barrier has been broken by your kind, and thus our price to humans paid, our imprisonment ended. This child, Frisk, freed us and has come forth to speak as our ambassador, as our millenia of captivity has left us ignorant of the matters of the human realm. Please, stay your weapons and bring forth your Speaker."

He didn’t like this kind of stuffiness, but sometimes the trick was to play to other’s expectations. He was the ancient and lost king-under-the-mountain, but instead of challenging them, he had come to negotiate. That was still within the possibilities of their fairytales, something familiar enough. It would be easier for them to trust him as a familiar-feeling fairytale king than as something completely unexpected.

They would listen to him.

Eventually.

 

Of course first someone panicked.

 

The world stuttered and folded on itself. Asgore could hear Frisk’s scream ringing in his ears even though it was dead silent for one shock-filled breath. In, out, in, and then humans were shouting orders and questions at each other. His trident dissipated as his magic scrambled back to his core. It felt like a thousand miniature bunnies jumped to all directions all at once. Would it feel similar if someone pranked the rabbit monster clan in the middle of a family dinner?

Ah, his mind wandered. No wonder, he recognized the numb derealization of shock. At the same time his heart was at ease. His arm was shielding Frisk, and they were safe under his paw.

Despite the noise the humans were making, he didn’t miss the small hiccuping sound next to his ear.

Don’t cry, Frisk. Stay determined”, he rumbled gently.

“But, i-it’s, I couldn’t, there wasn’t any time…”

“Don’t worry. It’s alright. I’m sure this can be solved with some tea and talking.”

Carefully, as not to jostle or drop Frisk, Asgore sat on his knees.

“We do not seek war”, he said after catching his breath. “Please, have mercy and let us start the peace talks.”

Before he was finished, the wall of soldiers parted and two humans ran up to him. They stopped a respectable (cautious) distance away. The shorter one of them had a briefcase, while the other one held what seemed like a first aid kit.

“We are so, so sorry!”

The human was bowing frantically, while the other was rifling through the kit. Someone was shouting from behind the soldiers – (“Miss Ark, get back here _immediately_ –!”) – but as the two humans were ignoring it, so did Asgore.

“It’s quite alright. Mistakes happen.”

Miss Ark looked relieved and thanked him profusely. Meanwhile the other human had donned gloves and pulled out an assortment of supplies. As both of them crowded Asgore’s side, Frisk hopped down from his shoulder and fumbled with their phone.

“Then, um, if Mx. Cowl could offer some help…?” Miss Ark asked while Mx. Cowl held the supplies in a questioning gesture.

“It’s okay, I got this”, Frisk interrupted as they finally managed to pull a slice of pie from their phone. Asgore accepted it with a grave nod. His hand was shaking badly, but he hoped he didn’t get crumbles in his beard. Or visible tears in his eyes. Toriel had insisted that they take some of her pie with them, just in case. After a few bites he felt his magic stabilize.

The two humans stared at the process wide-eyed. Their expressions turned even more shocked as Frisk’s presence finally registered. It caused some more shouting back and forth, and another human dressed in dark clothes joined them.

“Whose child –“

“Unacceptable –“

“– reckless to open fire like that –“

“Protocol –“

“– am not letting this turn into a B-movie –“

“– _either way_ , this isn’t the time for that!

It was all a bit fuzzy to Asgore, to be honest. He needed to sit down somewhere in the middle of it – and _boy howdy_ did that cause some shouting, even from Frisk. Especially when they realized the dust stirring in the wind.

 

After a day of rest and another of formal apologies and handshakes, Asgore was sitting in a suite with a cup of tea he had never tasted before. Frisk was napping on the sofa, and he had a veritable mountain of documents and folders set on the side table.

He wanted to say it had gone all according to the plan. Not the one he had told to Toriel and others, but the one he had hoped for. He had known how much it would help them if the humans felt something, anything else than fear for them. Pity and guilt were serviceable substitutions for true empathy. And Frisk, stern and precocious and heroic, had fanned that spark into a wildfire. They were too young to be a true ambassador, but their youth was also an advantage. Everyone had listened intently on Frisk’s miraculous story, and suspicions had melted into sympathy. Or at least the mask of it. What else could they have done before all their highly esteemed peers when a child was asking for mercy? How could they have kept their reputations otherwise?

(Asgore himself had also been able to let his sorrow and exhaustion show while, if not helping, at least not hurting their cause. Small mercies. He wasn’t as good in acting kingly as he’d like.)

It also helped that Dr. Alphys managed to connect Undernet to Internet ahead of schedule. When the world came to know monsters existed, only some were overly prejudiced. Most were wary, but excited, or doubted the whole thing was a hoax. Some good souls immediately took their cause head on. He only needed to look out from his window to see people with welcome signs – and some not so nice signs, but those were a minority pushed to the sidelines.

It seemed that many humans liked the idea of a fairytale come true. That was what they were to them. No-one remembered monsters anymore. They were just fanciful stories. Magic was superstition. The Barrier some electromagnetic peculiarity. To them, the war had never happened. The old ghost stories had kept Mountain Ebott empty for a long time. It had been no-man’-land that nobody wanted for ages. Nowadays it was a nature preserve – not only to protect the peculiar local wildlife, but to also to keep people away after a string of tragedies. Of course monsters could stay there before they reached a more permanent solution. Some had even offered to make the mountain theirs permanently – though some others glared daggers at that. In general the humans were horrified of the monsterkind’s overly long imprisonment, and of how much had been lost from their knowledge, and scrambled to assure them of equal and peaceful treatment.

He let the warmth of the tea melt away his worried and tiredness. The true hurdle was still ahead. At least some human leaders must be scheming or hesitating behind their friendly smiles. Humans of today were peaceful compared to the days of the war, but with peace came formality and bureaucracy. He’d need to negotiate and appeal and officiate countless things before he’d be even able to go back to the camp. Would he be able to get them recognized as their own nation? Even though he wasn’t fond of his throne, just migrating into the human society would put them in a weaker position than he’d like. Freeing the current governments from the crimes of their predecessors wouldn’t be enough, but maybe their gold would be. He’d also seen some interest when he’d hinted at the Core and it’s free, clean energy. Maybe a video conference with Dr. Alphys would sweeten the idea of cohabiting in the Surface to the humans…

He really should call for some help. Sans would be able to bring them in a snap, and even though he’d most likely sabotage some of the work, he could give a critical look at things and keep everyone sane.

Frisk would also do well with more people to look after them. They’d already been dubbed The Child of Peace by the media. They couldn’t walk the flower-filled streets of Ebott City without being surrounded by cameras. It didn’t seem to bother them when they posed and threw cheeky kisses to the journalists, but now that they were sleeping peacefully Asgore could see that there had been a worried crease between their eyebrows.

Hearing Toriel’s voice in his ears, Asgore started reading through the documents. Let them sleep a little longer while adults did their duties.

 

There was still an endless mountain of paperwork and bureaucracy to go through when he and Frisk returned to his people two weeks later. Still, everyone was filled with renewed hope. Away from everyone else’s eyes, Toriel hugged him wordlessly. It felt like a first step towards forgiving each other.

The welcome back was worried and relieved at the same time. Only Undyne stormed off swearing vengeance with tears in her eyes. She was preparing to go against her king’s orders when Papyrus and Gerson stopped her. Later Asgore saw Alphys joining in the tent. Everyone tried to politely ignore the angry shouting and loud crying, but the distressed magic brought everyone’s mood down.

Luckily it only took them three days to convince Undyne to drop her weapons and go talk to Asgore. They had tea under the large oak tree on the edge of the camp. For once, Undyne didn’t have an ounce of fighting spirit in her. She glared at her tea like she used to when she had been a child – a lonely and angry child.

“This sucks.”

“It can’t be helped.”

“Yeah, I sure KNOW. It still sucks.”

Asgore placed his tea down and turned to Undyne. She hesitated for a moment before crawling on his lap and hugging him.

“How is it even possible? How did it happen?”

Asgore had his own suspicions. Monster’s strength varied based on their emotions and intentions. He liked to play ignorant, but he remembered that strange resolution as something that had filled his chest in the dreams – nightmares? – where he fought Frisk and couldn’t pretend to believe in a quiet and happy ending.

“It’s okay”, he murmured softly and patted Undyne’s back.

“I’m still here.”

She cried on his shoulder, like she used to do when she had been a child who had lost her parents. He would have never wanted to make her go through that again.

… compared to that, to make sure all his children had a safe future, the use of one arm had been a light price to pay.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CW: hostility that leads to injury. Nothing graphic, but it leaves a character with permanent damage.
> 
> If you haven't listened to it yet, [this is an excellent remix of Asgore's theme.](https://youtu.be/7AbK8YII0qM)
> 
> Next up is... "Q."


	4. Q

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _"How to forget the "now" –_   
>  _The answer to, well, this song –_   
>  _How to walk tomorrow –_   
>  _Teach us."_

“Mistah. I think. You should staple them. Together. To better represent the truth.”

Frans blinked at the creased forms in his hands. They were filled to the brim with his chicken scratch. Notes, adjustments, whole sections crossed out and reworded. It was hard to make most of their human-centered forms when he couldn’t even keep the sweat from stinging his eyes.

“… I think that’s a wonderful idea”, he answered slowly, scratching his beard. It took a while to organize the pile before Frans could place one empty form on top of the 17 filled ones and staple them together. On the top form, he wrote ‘Snowdrake’s Mother’ because that was the closest they had to a name.

“So, I’ll put you two as the closest contacts here? Should I mark down someone from the other families?”

The Snowdrake wearing glasses paused for a moment. His crystalline feathers fluffed up and set off a cool breeze. In the end he listed off a bunch of names. Enough to cover pretty much everyone who was a part of the gently swaying amalgamate sitting across Frans. (They really had underestimated how many and very _different_ kinds of monsters there were.)

“There! All done. Thank you”, he beamed his brightest smile at the family of sort-of-but-actually-not-really-mostly snowdrakes. Mom nodded (or melted a bit and then jerked back in shape), but the teen and the dad thanked him profusely and then led the rest of their family out of the tent. Frans put the papers neatly in an envelope and marked it with a snowflake sticker. It wasn’t as if the family had a name to go by.

Last names were a rarity among monsters, but many family lines seemed to consist of similar beings. Then again, not all lapine monsters were related with each other – but then some of them were, and were offended by the mere insinuation that they weren’t. And then some completely different monsters were somehow all cousins with each other – a ghost, a robot, and two dummies, all of them cousins, none of them talked about any parents, none of them were siblings.

It wasn’t all that important, but it made it hard to keep up with who wanted to stick together with whom.

Honestly, monsters seemed wonderfully odd. Turtles almost older than all the main religions in the world. Talking plants. Pieces of anatomy or machinery. _Amalgamates_. Amalgamates had to be the hardest ones to record and face respectfully, Frans thought idly. He hoped he had done a good job making them feel welcome. His delight in meeting them hadn’t been the least bit faked. The cool air the snowdrakes radiated had been a welcome relief. Fall was creeping down the mountain, but down here cicadas were singing and the stifling heat made clothes cling to skin.

Some air conditioning would have been nice, but what can you do when you’re working on a drop-of-the-hat schedule and dancing on the edge of legal.

It should be legal and it would be legal, but sometimes you couldn’t wait for formalities. Humans For Monsters was an old, old, properly registered organization. It just needed its name and statement of purpose to be changed from appreciating and preserving old legends of Ebott area to appreciating, preserving and helping monsters.

Reintegrating a whole class of beings back on the Surface was a lot of work. Frans couldn’t even begin to comprehend the legal implications of monsters and their long imprisonment. That’s what Tuesti’s for. She must be shouting someone’s ear off on the phone right now. (Her workload was the only reason Frans didn’t envy the sweet, sweet air conditioning she got inside the maintenance cottage.) They had been down there for generations – that if anything counted as a cruel and unusual punishment, a war crime, a crime against humanity, or well, monsterity!

Some of them were scared of the sky. That was one of the reasons they took applications inside a huge tent erected on the parking lot.

Frans was just, you know, he had just _been there_ , slowly writing his thesis on the effect of the Barrier on the local beaver population. He had loved the folklore surrounding the mountain as a kid, and then, as a teen, he had fallen head-first into some pretty darn nerdy series based on the fairytales and urban legends of the area. As an adult, he had researched every bit of the Ebott Incident, everything from the official tale of mass hysteria to the wildest conspiracy theories, and speculated on all the missing people cases.

He had ended up taking the (relatively) more sensible option and focused on his other interest, biology, when his theorist friends ended up flipping burgers (or, worse still, wearing foil hats in basements) or studying such advanced physics it made his head hurt. Katie was just worlds ahead of him in the intelligence department.

What point had he been making? Right, it was a lot of very slow work to untangle developments as huge as the Barrier breaking. That’s why Tuesti had come up with the plan to take a grassroots approach so that The System wouldn’t just strand the poor monsters to the mountainside. Naturally all of the nerds had jumped right in.

Frans was just a biologist that couldn’t do much when the point was to help monsters get out from the damn mountain and into legal and political personhood. But he had very specific interests and side projects that helped him at least begin to guess the complications they might face when trying to help them finding housing, employment, or just shelter and food for the time being.. (Though the more monsters he met and talked with, it became more apparent he didn’t even know what to ask them. Frans’ mind was sparking with potential research projects, all of them better than the damn beavers.)

He stretched his back and glanced at his sides. Despite the heat, working with a dozen old friends was leagues better than camping in the forest recording beavers doing weird, weird shit. The snacks were excellent, too.

Frans blinked. Strange, no one had anyone at their desks. (Useless, wobbly camping tables that did not _deserve_ to be called desks.)

“Psst, Sori. Soooooori. Do you think we’re going to get another big group? Like the rabbits? Ohh, I hope we get like a million carrots”, he play-whispered to his left. Sori glared at him under eir long bangs. Ey was so strange, ey knew everything about the lichen near the Barrier and pretty much about all the other plant life on the planet, it seemed, but ey hated it all. Especially the happy vore carrots.

Well, the joke ended up being on Frans, when Gillian rushed in with two volunteers carrying the fire armor (that had a proper name that he had chosen to forget permanently, because _fire armor_ ).

“Right, people! The wind turned on us, and the next four hours is pretty much all rain free time we will have for the next week, so we’re doing the fire monsters now! Everyone, get in gear and remember to hydrate!”

It was hell. Mostly very kind and polite, but still hell. Flame people of different colors, burning spirals, little volcanoes, sentient piles of magma – Frans was pretty sure he had melted and fused with his clothes under the fire armor even before he was done with Sparks Firesguy, or whatever the short fire’s name had been.

Another thing about monsters. They seemed to understand most, if not all human languages perfectly well, but their communication methods varied wildly. Most had a surprisingly good handle on modern English. It seemed to be a lingua franca of sorts. Some of them could technically speak, but it was near impossible for a human to understand. The amount of those types in the fire monsters was _too damn high_.

“I'm sorry, could you repeat one more time?”

The fire person made a sound like “whfff”, like the flames had been fanned. Somehow flame fingers didn't scorch the paper when it was picked out from Frans' hands.

“Huh. You have way neater handwriting than me – oh, and, uh, I'm really sorry about this, it's already hard to hear in these suits.”

Even with the glasses on the flame person's face it was hard to tell where the eyes were, but alright, that was a _look_. Shit, he had messed this one up really badly, hadn't he? Sori was never going to let him forget this. Not after he had teased em about the carrots so much.

“.................…............. pay it no mind.”

The elemental's manners were as on point as his style. (Frans glanced at the form when it was handed back to him just enough to see the name and pronoun.) Grillby waved his hand in a gesture that said “really, it’s okay”, and they exchanged polite gestures before he left to let yet another cute little volcano waddle up to Frans’ desk.

 

An hour later Frans had been pushed outside with a huge bottle of water. He poured half of it on his head and shook open his messy bun. Even sitting in the shade made him feel wobblier than the desks. He’d laugh back at Sori when winter rolled in and ey has to wear three sweaters. Maybe ey should move in with a vulkin?

“Maybe we all should move in with them. That’d solve it”, Frans muttered to himself. He had been there just to take some basic info on their hopes and needs, but even that had been too much. What about convincing the world that moldsmals were people? He couldn’t even wrap his mind around the most glaring problems about this whole clusterfuck of a situation. How on earth could a guy made from fire ever live in an apartment building? They weren’t fireproof! _Humans_ weren’t fireproof!

It would be so cool to live with monsters from his childhood dreams, but _how_?

“Don’t lose hope. Stay determined.”

Frans looked up and hit his face right into a bag of chips. The kid holding it smiled at him. They had dark skin with warm overtones and a head full of thick, dark hair. They must be the child of someone on the crew, maybe Gillian?

“What?”

They shrugged and dropped the chips on his lap.

“I heard that lots when I wanted to quit”, they answered. Huh, didn’t that sound ominous. He sincerely hoped a kid that young didn’t have to struggle with – with anything, basically.

“Huh”, Frans repeated out loud and sipped his water.

They sat down next to him. There was a pink and glittery band-aid on their knee and grass stains on their pale lilac and pink striped shirt.

“You should eat the chisps.”

“Huh?”

“You need salt when it’s hot.”

“Oh, true. You’re a smart cookie.”

Frans popped the bag open and stuffed his mouth full before grimacing. Vinegar. He offered the kid some, and they took a handful. They ate the chips neatly, one by one, looking like they really savored the flavor of each of them.

“Don’t eat too many of them. It’s unhealthy”, they said when Frans was on his third fistful. A smile tugged his lips.

“How much is a good amount, then?”

“Just pace yourself and you’ll be fine.”

Frans slowed to lifting one chip at a time from the bag. He watched monsters come and go in companionable silence with the kid and let his mind wander. Woah, monsters had all kinds of funky colors going on. He was slightly jealous – maybe he should dye his hair again. A a real bright ultramarine would look pretty cool on him, especially if he dyed his beard, too.

“It’s as a thanks for helping everyone out.”

“Hnh?"

The kid was staring at him.

“Oh, the chips? Thank you.”

The kid kept staring him. Frans returned the stare without blinking and popped a chip in his mouth. The impromptu staring contest felt so grave and serious Frans felt the need to come up with a cheezy line about destiny and chips, but the kid suddenly scrunched their expression into this silly and terrifying face and almost made him choke for real.

“Oh I see, you came to harass me. Did Sori send you?” Frans wheezed. After drinking some water and wiping his hands on his shorts, he extended his hand to the kid.

“Frans Elsen, he, the one volunteer that just couldn’t stand the heat.”

That one got him a long pause. Maybe the kid wasn’t used to adults being all formal with them? There was little formality going on between the adults, either. Tuesti kept telling them to save it for the official committee of Finding Out What The Fuck Was Going On ™ if that ever was formed.

“Frisk Dreemurr. They”, the kid said. They seemed subdued compared to earlier, like they were waiting for something.

Wait.

This is the human kid. The human kid. Frans’ mind reeled. He, like pretty much everyone else, had been under the impression that they had been whisked away after the first round of talks between King Asgore and the government folks. There must be a missing person poster fluttering sadly around the city right this moment with this kid’s face on it. Didn’t a hero deserve to be taking it easy with their family?

Frans almost said that out loud. He managed to catch himself at the last moment, and changed it to the next thing that popped in his mind.

“Oh, cool. It _goat_ to be great to be a royal heir.”

Frisk giggled at that.

“It can be pretty hairy at times”, they said. Somehow, now that Frans knew who they were, they seemed both smaller and bigger at the same time. “But I really love mom and everyone else. And everyone helping them.”

“Seems to me we’re awfully late to the party. What with the history and future of the world has already been turned on its head.”

That earned him a smile with flushed cheeks. Their conversation didn’t really continue, even though Frans made a few remarks about monsters and humans passing by them. Maybe Frisk had also come to have a break from everything they had on their plate. At least they seemed to be in a good mood when they got up and ran after some skeletons.

The uneasy feeling in Frans’ stomach could just be the close brush with a heatstroke. He decided it was just that and mentally trashed any funny ideas about looking up some cold cases. A hero deserved the right to make their own choices, no matter their age, right? Hell, if someone had managed to be a main character of an adventure, he wasn’t going to rain on their parade.Besides, they had a bunch of guardians looking after them.

The thought of a kid finding a happy family and a place to belong… it filled Frans’ heart with fond and soothing memories. This whole gig was emotionally exhausting. Under the excitement it hurt to think how few monsters there were to be interviewed, or how low expectations most of them had for their living conditions. Despite his selfish thoughts of sweet, sweet research funds and fulfillment of childhood fantasies, Frans was actually a sap who only wanted smiles as his reward.

 

Though when he got a message from Dr. Alphys about her looking for a human assistant, hey, he wasn’t going to be modest just for appearance’s sake. It was sad to say goodbye to the beavers, but he’d survive.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next up is... probably a nameless interlude drabble. Or "Heavy Rain."


	5. Mini-Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> * This fucked-up wonderful world belongs to _them_.

The birds were singing, the flowers were blooming. On days like these, monsters were playing outside. Alphys hadn’t left her apartment in three days. She could do her current job from here, so why brave the crowds and curious (judging) stares? Toriel might have sacked her immediately, but Ebott U had snatched the ex-Royal Scientist of monsters right up, citizenship limbo or not.

Some days she just couldn’t make herself do anything else than rewatch anime with the blinds drawn down. Those days it felt like there was no difference between the Underground and the Surface.

At least until Undyne came back home and cuddled next to her smelling like grass and sunlight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ... next up is "Heavy Rain."


	6. Mini-Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> * This fucked-up wonderful world belongs to _them_.

Undyne’s apartment had a toilet.

That was rather normal for human apartments. She showed it to Papyrus when she gave them the tour when they moved in. The shower curtain had cartoon girls on it, and the cabinet was an unacceptable mess that he straightened up immediately. There was some novelty value in seeing a porcelain throne, but after pulling the lever a few times his interest dropped, and the seat just became a background drop to his morning and evening routines.

Despite being a mascot, Papyrus had found out that none of the living arrangements offered to one were nowhere close to his standards! So his – and Sans’, though he had his own affairs to tend to and was seen rarely – stay extended and extended while he saved up and hunted houses.

Naturally there came a time when Frisk wanted to come over. After all, they could conveniently hang out with four of their good friends in one go! Who wouldn’t have wanted to visit as often as possible?

Except now Frisk was back on all-human food diet. Apparently they needed it to get big, strong bones. They insisted that a few monster snacks from time to time would be okay, but Papyrus didn’t take risks when it came to his friends’ health.

So naturally, eventually came the time Frisk had to _go_ , as they say. And they had a toilet.

“… IT SHOULD BE UNDER THERE SOMEWHERE.”

Frisk tried to swallow their giggles.

“i can take you back to tori’s, if you don’t feel like destroying this masterpiece”, Sans offered, peeking inside from the door. Flushed and trembling from the barely held back laughter, Frisk nodded.

“brb, bro.”

After they had left, Papyrus planted a hand over his eyes and sighed. He needed to stage an intervention. Alphys’ allnighters needed to stop, if they kept resulting in altars for cat girls.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> .... now for real next up is "Heavy Rain."


	7. Heavy Rain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Here in this rain which shows no signs of stopping_   
>  _I was just looking up at the dark sky above_   
>  _This town where it feels difficult to lift my feet,_   
>  _It changed its colors before I realized it_

The Surface was unpredictable.

 

Grillby took a step back when the wind sent water splashing his way. He had limited room for maneuvering, as the parking lot was slowly but surely turning into one huge puddle. The gas pumps were elevated, but he hadn’t lost all his reason. Yet. The rain seemed to be just revving up for proper flood-the-entire-cty downpour.

It had started innocently enough, with a light shower and the sun still peeking behind the clouds. Grillby had signed a nice deal with a local brewery and picked up some human ingredients (he’d been experimenting with them for a while, now) from the farmer’s market. He had opened his umbrella while waiting for the bus, and thought he would manage to be back to open his bar for the night.

Now he stared at his hand and tried to part the wavering flame into five fingers with little success. The rain was a wall of noise beyond the canopy, and the wind kept blowing stray droplets to sting his cheeks. There was no way he could get back t the bus stop without losing his legs. Holding his umbrella against the worst of the spray, Grillby watched the bus drive past without slowing down. It’s tires created a tidal wave that rushed over the sidewalk.

Grillby felt a bit faint.

“Excuse me?” a bright voice rose above the hiss of rain.

“Are you – wait, I’m coming there!”

An employee of the station disappeared back in from the door. She walked deeper inside, outside the view from the windows, only to appear again with an umbrella, a bag, and a manager talking animatedly. The manager stayed inside, clearly watching him, but the employee opened her umbrella and ran to Grillby.

“You know, it’s – those signs, you see? No open fire? I know you’re not, uhm, but you know –“ She rushed her words, slightly out of breath. Her ponytail hung limply. Even with umbrellas, the water was impossible to escape. Grillby could feel his pantlegs getting damp. They were slowly starting to sting.

“…… sorry. I can’t……… exactly get out.” He articulated the best he could, but it still came out a little wispy. The girl’s face scrunched up in concentration – and was released into a startled, wide-eyed flush.

“Oh no, nonono, I meant – I mean, we would like to offer you a cup of coffee, or uh, anything you do drink? If you drink? But inside!”

She thrust the bag at him. It held a rain coat and rubber boots that Grillby gladly changed into. They walked side by side, two umbrellas shielding against the rain. It was a relief to hear the door chime and click shut behind him.

“…….. thank you, and sorry”, Grillby said quietly when he handed the rain gear back. The hood of the coat was slightly singed.

“It’s okay! It’s okay. It must be… anyway, it’s okay!” The ponytail girl rushed back to what must be the employee locker room. She seemed friendly, but also slightly frightened. It wasn’t a rare reaction, especially in such a place. Humans had many things and places, were even the tiniest stray spark could spell disaster. It made Grillby appreciate the friendliness more. She had decided to go against her instinct and try to bridge their distance.

She didn’t seem to be coming back, however. Grillby sighed. Steam billowed from his clothes when he let his temperature rise and dry them. The manager at the counter looked warily, but was clearly appeased when he didn’t light anything on fire. They didn’t have anything Grillby could drink, so he decided to pass on that opportunity. That, and the bag of chips he bought, seemed to clear the rest of the manager’s sour mood. Grillby counted that as a win. After Frisk, he had, like most monsters, expected other humans to be kind and welcoming. It had made the first troublesome weeks that more scary. He was glad all that tension had resolved peacefully. It was better for business.

A quick text later he settled down next to a window to wait for the storm to pass. He watched it, slowly eating his chips. It wasn’t too bad. The cafe was nearly empty, and mellow music played against the sounds of the rain. His groceries would hold a while longer and the chips were nice and crispy, bursting into flames inside his mouth. It was just…

The sky was unpredictable.

Grillby was older than what most thought, but not old enough to know the sky from before. There were some changes in the stone ceilings of Underground, but those were too gradual to see – you’d just notice one day that the glowing rock constellations had shifted or a stalactite had fallen. In Hotland, parts of the ceiling would melt and get glassy. In Waterfall and Snowdin moisture condensed in the rocks and slowly rained down.

It was nothing compared to the roiling clouds and shifting colors of the real sky. He especially liked the sunsets that made the sky look like it was one giant blaze of fire that died down to the gentle shimmering of stars.

What he _didn’t_ like was the weather. He had to always carry an umbrella. Rain couldn’t be predicted like in the Underground. The first time it rained he had been unprepared. He, his brother and his sibling had been outside, and they had barely managed to get to cover before anything worse happened. Luckily it had been just a drizzle.

The times his umbrella wasn’t enough seemed to increase in sync with the golden leaves on the ground.

His phone buzzed. Fuku had texted back. They were safe, and at home. Immediately afterwards they sent another message, a picture of a sign they had written, and then the sign put up in the bar door. _‘Raincheck on the bar opening today’_ wasn’t how he would have worded it. His pun would have been better.

The door chimed and another monster walked in. Grillby turned to look – and was greeted by Muffet’s toothy smile.

“Afufu! So I did see correctly.” She sat to the chair across him without asking for permission. Grillby nodded his greeting as she hung her umbrella from her chair. There was not a single drop on her dress or perfectly curled hair.

“I was walking by, but then I heard from the spiders living here that you seemed to be in a bit of a pinch”, she continued. Her spider clan was everywhere, nowadays.

At first Grillby had stayed at the small settlement up the mountain side. It was where most fire monsters had been staying, along with other monsters who had been skeptic about how they would be received, or unsure of what they wanted. Grillby didn’t think he belonged into either group. He had been just seeing his options before rushing to a choice. Some furry folk had been talking about making another settlement up over the snow line. He’d heard vegetoids and moldsmals had settled in the forests of the nature reserve. Some ventured even farther, to distant cities, countries, continents. The spiders were among the first ones to move, and they had quietly invaded all of Ebott City.

“Say, I could help you for old time’s sake. You were rather kind to spiders, after all.”

Grillby huffed. He had just helped some fellow monsters weak to cold and wet Snowdin outdoors, and they had settled in his bar without a permission. They had helped a little around the old bar, but Muffet had delivered on her promise to arrange for them to move in with her only after the barrier had been broken.

“………….. if you say so.”

Muffet giggled like she hadn’t been pestering him about selling some of her spider goods in his new bar using the same reasoning.

“Oh, I do say so. I’ll even give you a discount!”

Knowing Muffet’s discounts and how deals with her tended to turn out, Grillby prepared mentally to haggle like his life depended on it.

“hey, it’s not cool to rain on a guy in a pinch.”

The sudden voice behind him made Grillby startle. Seeing an opening, Sans stole his chips with a wide grin on his face. His hoodie was soaking wet. Grillby leaned away from him.

‘Sans? What are you doing here?’ he signed. Sans took a moment to parse it – he had always been hopeless in understanding Grillby’s speech, but dampened by the rain, his signs certainly weren’t all that clear, either.

“eh, some people were worried about you, grillbz. fuku told me you were stuck. paps is on his way here, he’ll drive you back for free.” Sans shrugged and poured the rest of the chips to his mouth. Muffet hummed.

“Oh Sans, that was completely uncalled for,” Muffet said primly, but got up and took her umbrella with her. “But nevermind. I have some business to attend. The next batch of spider cider should be ready to be sent on Saturday.”

Sans stole Muffet’s seat the second she took her leave. They exchanged a look that felt very much like a handshake after a successful deal.

“so, d’ya still have my number? why didn’t you give it a call?” Sans asked and startled Grillby again. He could have called someone, true. If he had been selfish enough to ask his relatives to make a long trip just to endanger themselves. Or bother acquaintances with things they didn’t understand. He let his silence do the talking.

“… fair enough. i haven’t been a good regular for a while.”

While others had been waiting for the fruits of the campaigning of the kind humans of HFM, aand Frisk, Papyrus, Sans and others had done their share and some more advocating and ambassadoring and fighting red tape… Grillby had pooled most of his savings and started up a new restaurant right in the middle of the neighborhood with most monsters in Ebott City. He did his best to just settle down quietly and without notice. There was only a small opening party for his old regulars, and the most exciting thing happening there had been when Sans had tried to replace his sign with one that read “Grillby’s 2: the Grilling Strikes Back.”

That was, until the humans had taken notice. And _how_ they did, as he accidentally had ended up being the first monster to own human real estate. There was a media storm about “monster rush” and a “Little Underground” or “Monster Town” forming and the humans living in the area swapped quite a bit. That, in turn, encouraged more monsters to move in. Including Fuku, who had decided that squatting at their uncle’s place until he let them live there was the best way to get away from their parents and closer to their new school.

It all was unpredictable and lively, like the days in Snowdin whenever the skeleton brothers got into a prank war. It also meant everyone was incredibly busy.

‘No, it’s not that. Thank you.’

Sans’ grin brightened at that. That was also when a red sports car rolled right in front of the station’s front door. It’s hood was up, and as Grillby watched, a roof of bones extended from the door to the car, so perfectly slotted together and wide enough that not a single drop would be able to reach Grillby.

‘I thought he didn’t like me’, Grillby signed to Sans, who shook his skull slowly.

“nah, paps just doesn’t like my, uh, bad habits.”

Fair enough. While Grillby picked up his things, Sans disappeared. He thought he had slipped back home, but instead found the skeleton sitting shotgun.

“GREETINGS! PLEASE DON’T MIND THE MESS, I HAD TO LEAVE HASTILY”, Papyrus greeted him and waved towards the tissue and two empty ketchup packets in the otherwise pristine car. Grillby waved back a greeting and ‘don’t mind’ before buckling down with his groceries resting next to him.

‘Thank you, again. You shouldn’t have.’

“sometimes you got to do what you got to do, especially if you’re craving a burg.”

“ALWAYS READY TO HELP SOMEONE WHO’S DONE SO MUCH FOR US”, Papyrus said. He sounded very genuine and heartfelt, but also a bit distracted. It must be a challenge to drive in this weather, especially when Papyrus clearly didn’t settle for anything short perfection.

‘It’s what I would do for any regulars.’

Papyrus clicked his teeth.

“I DIDN’T MEAN THE TEXTS ABOUT SANS, BUT THANK YOU FOR THAT, TOO.”

Grillby’s attempt at shaking of the unnecessary praise – he was just running a bar and keeping friendly with his regulars, that’s all – was disrupted by Sans twisting to give him a thoughtful look.

“is… is this a conspiracy i’m hearing?” He gasped as if he didn’t already know about Papyrus utilizing everyone around him to watch his brother’s back.

“no but seriously. You did help us way back when, didn’t you?”

Papyrus stopped at a red light – with no other cars in sight – and hmmd loudly.

“I THINK I REMEMBER SOMETHING LIKE THAT! YOU EVEN COOKED SOMETHING NON-GREASY FOR US.”

What Papyrus meant with ‘something non-greasy’ – Grillby remembered most of his cooking, starting from the imaginary meals he used to make with his toys as a child. It had been shortly after the skeleton brothers had appeared in Snowdin. He’d been asked by… maybe Tessa? She had taken the young skeletons under her paw, when they had lived in her sister’s inn before moving into the empty house. He remembers cooking a meal for four, making pretty much perfect lasagna and the cupcakes he liked to do when he wanted to impress someone.

At least Sans had been impressed by his cooking. He was still a regular. Papyrus he had seen mostly just when he came to drag Sans back home. On the Surface even that didn’t really happen anymore – Sans had left on his own after a text or two. Grillby could guess why when he watched Papyrus. Even smiling, he looked tired. Being a mascot, taking care of Sans and Frisk too, getting a license this fast…

‘Why don’t you both stay at the bar after this? I could cook it again.'

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ... next up is "Moment Drive."
> 
> (My Grillby owes all to [perniciousLizard's fics](http://archiveofourown.org/users/perniciousLizard/works?fandom_id=6541412). Read them if you haven't already!)


	8. Mini-Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> * This fucked-up wonderful world belongs to _them_.

Papyrus’ life had turned into a puzzle of schedules and budgets. At first his best efforts had been met with _patient smiles_ , but it didn’t matter – he’d been allowed to tag along with Frisk, he was declared the official mascot, and soon after he started receiving his own invitations to talk shows, interviews and photoshoots. He had meetings with Very Important People to attend. On top of his training regimen and Alphys’ confidence lessons, he had social gatherings and obligations to fulfill.

Soon a day was too short for all the hours Papyrus needed to put in. Well, he had never needed that much sleep to begin with. The little he managed seemed to get only worse and worse, and after a month of bunking at Alphys’ apartment he was rather nostalgic about the tents, even with their non-existent soundproofing.

But it all was just business as usual, water of the small bird’s back.

No, the unbearable thing was that he no longer had time to do chores. And then, when he had the time and his fingerbones were just _aching_ to straighten up things, he couldn’t. After reorganizing Alphys’ figurine collection just once to what was objectively a superior arrangement, she finally found her fierce inner goddess and almost started a blood feud between their families.

Papyrus took her on celebratory ramen afterwards, but the air in the apartment seemed to only get worse after that, and it was already painfully stuffy with that many monsters in so little space.

That’s why he squealed loud enough to make the neighbor’s dog bark when his calculations turned out the same on the third time.

“papyrus! is everything okay?” Sans had zoomed in immediately. That was good – he could grab him into a hug and twirl them both around the the living room.

“SANS! WE HAVE ENOUGH FOR THAT HOUSE!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ... _next_ up is "Moment Drive."
> 
> There is [a small comic](https://thiswholeblogisjustoneutfic.tumblr.com/post/152005660947/give-them-room-this-sketchy-comic-is-for) on Alphys' experience.


	9. Moment Drive

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _"Be pure white,_   
>  _and don't think about a single unnecessary thing._   
>  _You understand, right?_
> 
> _In this moment, we felt eternal."_

“That smell! (Smells like Undyne.)”

Undyne grinned and knocked (punched) the door some more. It was too thin to conceal the sound of escalating barking inside. All in all it was a shoddy, frail looking apartment complex – pretty much the same as all the other buildings in the neighborhood. A train rushed by and shook the windows. It was pretty close to the harbor, and it showed in the rough, plain look the streets had. But it was also cheap to live there, and there just wasn’t enough space and kind-hearted people for all of the monsters to live next to each other.

So, it was just perfect that Undyne’s long runs were pretty much the distance between her and the Dogi’s place.

“(It’s Undyne!)”

She grinned wider when Dogaressa pulled the door wide open. She peeked just her snout out first – good form, you could never be too careful.

“Hey, long time no see! Did I interrupt something? I tried to call, but…”

“Not at all. Please, come in.” Dogaressa pulled the door closed behind them. She sniffed the air and her face scrunched up in worry.

“(Are you alright?)”

“100%! I was just on a run.” Undyne laughed and wiped sweat from her brow.

“I got to do 10K’s every week now, and I thought hey, why not make my route go near the Dogi’s place? We haven’t had any proper talks for a while.”

Dogaressa nodded along, but still went to their kitchen to grab a glass of water for Undyne. She accepted it, and promptly threw it on her head. She didn’t need any mothering from her former underlings, but damn, surface got pretty hot around noon, even when it _shouldn’t_. It was called little summer, or something like that, when it got hot and dry after the autumn colors had set.

“So what are you two up to, now? Are Endogeny still living with you guys?” Undyne asked when accepting her second glass of water, this time for drinking.

“(No, they stayed with Greater Dog. He has the time for them, and we…”

Dogaressa glanced to the living room part of their open-plan condo. It was a nice place – the ceiling was low, but the windows were huge and let in tons of light. The Dogi had found a massive couch and two plushy armchairs, both covered in a dog and bone themed print. Dogamy was lounging on the sofa. The bastard was _smirking_ at her when he looked up from… up from…

“YOU HAVE PUPPIES!??”

Undyne clutched her chest. Oh. My. God??? There was a litter of six little monster puppies sleeping in a pile! They were little small white fuzzballs, tiny little sleepy blobs! Six of them!!

“OH MY GOD??”

“Shh, don’t wake them. (He just got them to sleep.)”

Undyne squeed without a sound. Six whole puppies!!! Little fluffy marshmallow soft puppers! She instantly knew this would be the unbeatable highlight of the whole week, no, MONTH, when Dogamy gestured her to come closer. She dropped her butt on the floor and pet the puppies tiny soft tummies so carefully and gently that none of them woke up from their nap.

“(They don’t wake up too easily, thank the stars.) So, how has life been after you left the company?”

“Oh yeah, you’re still working at the security place?” Undyne dared to answer in a voice that was barely louder than a breath, when the Dogi first talked in soft voices. She teared her eyes from the puppies to the proud, but tired-looking parents. Dogaressa nodded while Dogamy scritched one of the puppies gently.

“The pay is good, and boss backed us up for this apartment… (We’ll be able to save for an apartment closer to everyone else before they start school, this way.)”

“Oh, that’s good.”

It was far from ideal, but not as bad as she had expected. Good housing was hard to come by. She was thankful for Alphys’ genius brain that landed them their apartment right on the Ebott U campus. Without some serious backing or goodwill effort, good housing was hard to come by. The humans of HFM could only do so much, when the anti-discrimination laws were in a limbo. Frisk was worried about it, and she had seen first hand what kind of a mountain of work had swept Papyrus away, even though he was just a mascot.

Undyne had just resolved to make sure that her guard would stay safe. She wasn’t one of those big leader types after all, so there was only so much she could do.

“But yeah, I tried working at that aquarium, but apparently you’re not allowed to spear the customers?? Not even when they’re breaking the rules?? So I left.” It had been better than the security gig. No matter how she smiled and kept reminding herself of everything Frisk had taught her, she just couldn’t bring herself to guard humans and their things. Not after… not after _that_. Most of them seemed pretty cool, but as a security guard it had been part of her job description to deal with the bad eggs. The aquarium had been tons of fun when she fed the fish and took care of the penguins, but then there were asshole kids knocking on glass and asshole parents throwing tantrums.

“Actually, I got an offer just recently. It’s from this one gym, and my runs are part of extra training for that. They’re thinking about making mixed-species show wrestling a thing. You know, the one with heel-turns and costumes and stories, right?”

“(Oh, the one with the colorful masks?) Sounds fun!”

“Nah, that’s slightly different. You see, they have this local thing going on…”

That drove the conversation on a long derail about human entertainment. Soon that turned into how the bits and pieces salvaged from the garbage dump hadn’t prepared them at all for how things really were up here. No giant robots, but hoooo boy how many giant robot series there were to watch! And cons, there were so many cons she and Alph wanted to hit with some gorgeous cosplay. Dogamy answered her gushing with stories from their folk-dancing lessons. They’d befriended pretty much the whole class already. No wonder, humans seemed to _really_ like petting dogs.

 

When the puppies started waking up demanding food, Undyne took that as her cue to leave. With a filled water bottle and pleasantly tired muscles, she set out on easy pace. The traffic was low. She passed a dingy looking lunch place. It had posters with bright colors and lots of numbers, and dingy little tables set out on the street. The food smelled delicious – the few people eating out in the unseasonably warm sun were having some amazingly big sandwiches that dripped juices. They looked about as rough as the neighborhood, and one of them stared long after her.

There wasn’t any other monsters around. Passing trash-filled alleyways and punks dithering about Undyne felt her shoulders climbing up. Annoyed, she swirled to face an empty doorway and threw a few punches to loosen up. She was a tough gal from the dump, a captain of the guard – had the university and cushy living on the Surface made her forget that? What was she doing, looking at these punks, _her kind of punks_ , like some prissy snob who didn’t like wrong type of people dirtying their lawn!?

“Hey, what’re you doing?”

Undyne hopped lightly in place and looked back. One of the punks, a tall one in a red jumpsuit, was walking towards her.

“Training”, she grunted. Shit, the dude was smiling, but she couldn’t tell if it was a good smile. Maybe she should pull out a spear just in –

_No. Don’t escalate it. There has only been minor skirmishes, denial of services, minor verbal stuff. It wasn’t some random punk with nothing to do_ _who_ _did_ that _–_

“Kinda busy, so”, she said and flashed a smile. She had to force herself to turn her back to the dude and jog with her planned easy pace instead of sprinting.

“Hey, wait up –“

Thank STARS that was the moment she saw the familiar red convertible in the traffic lights little up ahead.

“YO PAPS!” She shouted and waved wildly. When Papyrus answered her with his current cool guy salute, she took that as an invitation for a ride. Which meant that she summoned a spear and pole vaulted right to the passenger seat.

“Where ya going? Mind if I come with?” She asked as she was already buckling her seatbelt. Papyrus gave her a look, but then the light turned and his eyes snapped back to the road. Thank _stars_ for that, any longer and he would have noticed how her shortness of breath had nothing to do with exercise.

“HMM! I WAS… JUST GOING BACK HOME, ACTUALLY, SO IT’S NO BOTHER AT ALL TO MAKE DROPPING YOU HOME A SIDE-QUEST.”

Undyne wriggled out of her little backpack. She dropped it between her feet after fishing out the water bottle.

“Thanks, Papyrus. You’re a lifesaver.” She grinned to him before drinking.

“NOT LIKE I HAD ANY PLANS FOR THE RARE OCCASION I’M NOT OFF DOING IMPORTANT MASCOT MISSIONS.”

“Haha, yeah, right.”

Undyne let herself sink into the seat. At home she would have to compensate for all this and draw up a battle plan. Now, though, just getting her pulse down should be enough. Closing her eyes, she focused on her breathing and let her mind empty. There was the hum of the engine, sound of traffic whooshing by, the clack-clack-clack of pedestrian traffic lights. Papyrus had his weird music on low. There was awfully lot of speaking instead of singing, strange ambient noises and sudden changes in melody and even genre. Apparently there were albums after albums filled with puzzles and hints for the other albums and lyrics with numerical code. He liked his music puzzling. Couldn’t really blame the guy for knowing his preferences.

“SO. WHAT HAPPENED?”

“Urrrrrgh.” Undyne sunk deeper into her seat. Papyrus wasn’t looking at her. He focused on driving, eyes strictly ahead.

“Humans SUCK.”

“UNDYNE! ONE OF MY BEST FRIENDS IS A HUMAN.”

“Frisk’s an exeption.”

Papyrus hummed. She sighed. Sometimes she wondered. How come Frisk was so different? They were so passionately kind. They would never… Nah, they just _had_ never done anything bad. She still remembers her thoughts before their fight. What if Papyrus had just been manipulated? They could have turned heel any moment. They could have… done what they must to get out.

The hostilities on the Surface had confirmed _something_ to some annoying unconscious part of her, and that asshole was now expecting a massacre against all the odds.

“It’s nothing, don’t worry.” Undyne scratched her brow through her eyepatch. She was overthinking. Her! Overthinking!! That was NOT allowed, she needed to suplex that shit back in line ASAP.

“But hey! We haven’t cooked in a while! Let’s make something, yeah?” Undyne changed the topic with a friendly punch to Papyrus’ shoulder. It didn’t affect his steering in the slightest, what a tough, cool friend!

“I HAVE TO LEAVE AGAIN SOON, FRISK HAS A GOODWILL EVENT IN JAPAN.” Papyrus hummed thoughtfully. His smile did the weird thing it sometimes did. Like, it didn’t move anywhere, but it seemed to turn into a completely different smile. “BUT TRUE, WE SHOULD SEIZE THE OPPORTUNITY TO MAKE THE ULTIMATE PASTA! HAVE YOU SEEN THE VARIETY THEY HAVE IN STORES??”

“You’ve told me all about the bone pasta, Paps, don’t you dare to try distract me”, Undyne leaned closer to Papyrus, giving him her best playfully intimidating stare. “JAPAN!? You’re going to JAPAN!?! Oooooohhhh you’re going to get a long long list of stuff to look for from me and Alph!”

“I AM NOT GOING TO ANY OF YOUR SILLY CARTOON STORES.”

“Rude. And sure you are. You tried to HIDE this, so enjoy your friendship PUNISHMENT, punk!!”

She drowned his frustrated sounds with a maniacal cackle. This was good, it made her feel normal again. It’s way better to focus in the moment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ... next up is "World Domination How-To."
> 
> You all know the fic with aquarium-worker Undyne and penguins. Yes. That fic.

**Author's Note:**

> For doodles and small comics in the same 'verse, please feel free to check out [the tumblr for this fic.](https://thiswholeblogisjustoneutfic.tumblr.com/)


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